IF ANY player at the Kangaroos deserves to savour Saturday night's classic win over the Swans, it's Blake Grima.

The highly-talented midfielder has endured a torrid time since being drafted at No.38 in the 2002 NAB AFL Draft, with shoulder surgery and countless hamstring tears restricting him to just eight AFL games. To put that in perspective, Daniel Wells, who was taken in that same 2002 draft, this week made his 90th appearance for the Roos.

Grima has been quietly rebuilding his career since forcing his way into the senior line-up for the Kangaroos' breakthrough win over Brisbane, and was ecstatic to be part of the 16-point victory over the Swans.

"A win like tonight; they don't get much better than that. It's great to get three in a row and it gives us a good chance to set ourselves for the season.

"Sydney have obviously been a quality team for so long, so we really wanted to see where we were at this week.

"We knew they'd come back hard in the last quarter, but I think that makes the win so much more enjoyable. Knowing a battle-hardened team like the Swans hit us with everything they had at the end but we still got over the top is a real boost to our confidence."

According to Grima, a key focus in the lead up to the game was for the team to have confidence in their ability to match it with Swans in every facet of the game. To that end, the team resisted the temptation to close things down when the Roos opened up a six-goal lead midway through the third term.

"We went into the game with the thought of backing ourselves in against each of our opponents. We think winning the contested ball and the clearances is something we do well and we were prepared to go head to head with them at that.

"They have an amazing midfield and are very good across the park. We knew Goodes was certainly one of their more dangerous players and we'd have to watch him closely but again we wanted to back ourselves in and it came up pretty well.

"We are playing a pretty good style of footy at the moment, pretty attacking and it's working well for us. We didn't want to change that just because we got a bit of a lead, but obviously the Swans hit back hard at us, and we knew they would.

"So to be able to stave them off was a great result for the club."

The Roos next week return to the Dome against suburban rivals Essendon in what shapes as an intriguing Friday night blockbuster. Despite the Bombers' patchy form of late, Grima is under no illusions about the magnitude of the team's next assignment.

"It should be a huge game, no doubt. Essendon have come off a loss today so they'll be eager to put that behind them.

"Simmo has told us to look after ourselves tonight because we've got the short break, so we'll have to put our heads down on the track this week and get ourselves up for another big one next week."

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.